Physicist Marin Soljacic on photonic crystals

For Marin Soljacic, a large part of the fun of innovation comes from working in a relatively new field: photonics. A member of this year’s TR35, the MIT physicist builds theoretical models of tiny structures called photonic crystals. Recently, he spoke with us about the excitement of working in a field where theory and application are intertwined–and let us in on why he thinks photonic crystals could finally enable optical information-processing to make the transition from theory to practice.